Alas, poor July, I knew it well

First, this.

See that tiny little bit of purple. Thus was began July's project. Yes, on July 30th. Grr. So for August's neutrals of all kinds, I have my brown bag to felt, and the grey fair isle sweater. I think the bag has yet to be ripped, while the sweater is completely frogged.

I thought the sock yarn would match my beloved's new ACU (not BDU, not DCU, and not cammo) hat. He and I went to Ft. Leavenworth this evening to get him some new 'school clothes'. The Army has changed or added this new uniform to their list of uniforms. Under daylight, the hat and yarn look the same. In fluorescent? Nope! After feeling the Army socks for sale, I'm making Hub's socks. I mean, come on. I don't think anyone wants scratchy nylon rubbing on their feet in those boots. The desert issue boots have ventilation, but still. I'm thinking socks for The Guy would be a great neutral project for August.

Then, we finally have the ill-gotten gains from the Studio's sale. 25% off EVERYTHING in the store. I wanted Jaimeson & Smith or Dale of Norway. Came away with Silken Tweed. There's enough to make a summer shell, I think.

You'd think that my running off to the Studio after Mary's phone call, then to Leavenworth with the guy wouldn't be that tiring. All that shopping, though! Unload pickup, fix supper, update blog, and knit.

Should I mention the polite Lieutenant Colonel(LTC) in the PX who WASN'T my own guy? For a Texan, he was merely polite, but for Missouri, he was downright smitten. I have a feeling he's a transplant from the South. ;) At any rate, it's nice to have an LTC of my own. He's had all his shots. ::snicker::

Thanks for the positive feedback, by the way! It's always appreciated. :)

Then, we got the heck out of Dodge...

And came back home! Here's a pictorial update, with some laceweight Knit Pick's thrown in for Susan. Trekking is there, with a few rounds done on the way to Dodge City and back. Officially, there are 450 stitches per round. I finally got the math right. As an added bonus is the most recently spun wool, all knitted into swatches. Such fun. :)

Thanks so much for the kudos, Chelle and Carol. I'm actually looking forward to finishing the next sock! Sort of. :D

300! Who knew?!

I mean, really! I stuck with this for at least 300 posts. For a gal who won't keep a journal, this is pretty amazing.

We're not in it for the words, you say. We're in it for the PICTURES! Yay! So here we go!

I received this in the email today. Gosh! It looks familiar! Could it be that Flakey already has a hat like this?


Did you hear any angels singing in joy last night? Sure you did! The first lacey sock is done! Do I have second sock syndrome? Nope! But I do want to finish the first Trekking sock first.


I'm not the only one who loooooves this sock. It was a bear to knit, but feels fantastic on the foot. No catnip was involved in the making of this photo.


I got cher fiber right here. I think I'm set for a while, especially considering I don't have a spinning wheel yet. There will be some dying of this, of course, but first I want to get some practice down.


What am I going to do with all that???? Well, THIS comes to mind. I mixed some natural roving with some already brilliantly dyed stuff. Just to see what would happen. It only looks two ply. I'm trying to be patient, waiting for it to dry. The next task is to figure out how NOT to overspin the stuff. I'm really good at that, sadly.

The brain, the brain!

Update is at the bottom...

Day two of migraine. It's not been all bad, thanks to the miracle of modern medicine. Still, when I woke this morning, it'd come back. So, some meds, a glass of water to chase them and the coffee, a bit of breakfast, and I'm napping this morning away. I did nearly nothing yesterday, and have a class today, so I need to get this over with before Friday. We have some family activities planned, thus, my brain is somewhat necessary.

So all that kitchen mess? Still there. Sure, dinner was made, dishes were done, but the cleaning and sorting? Nope. I did manage to go through the massive amounts of clothes hangers, culling the ones I won't need. Like Joan Crawford and her wire hangers, I have a thing about the all plastic ones. I beyond hate them, loathe, despise, all that. The plastic ones with a metal hook? Love them for coats, but anything else plastic has to go. I've been known to break them just to 'take them out'.

Yes, this 'normal' thing I pretend to be is a facade. :) Since my beloved Husband wants to take the tiny digital camera to the event this weekend (a family reunion on his side), I'll take pics of the works in progress and post them this afternoon.

Meanwhile, I have a date with an ice pack. When chemistry doesn't help the brain, freezing it into submission does.


Nap is over and it worked. Yay! It's 3:15 and I'm already ready for class, sort of. As you can see below, here is the class sock. I like an inch to the toe. Otherwise, check out the roving! The loose bags, two of them, arrived yesterday from Paradise Fibers. Then, today, the first order arrived, which we'd all thought was lost. Since it was already here, I had to buy it, of course. You know, since I'm so postally impaired and all. ;)


I've already attacked this stack of papers today! Gone all gone.

You can see how well Claude helps me. When there's paper on the floor, he's over there, maneuvering it into place as his bed. He's daring me to take his bedding. ;)

Just a little cracker, only a bite...

I'd forgotten how hard South Beach is for a carboholic. There must not have been that much glucose in the system, because today, I'm tired. Part of it is the garage, I'm sure.
Most, I'm thinking, is the diet. After all, so far, I've not had a speck of sugar or flour of any kind. And it's already the second day! ::insert eye roll here::

Hmm. This before and after isn't that marked, is it? Yesterday was the before, thus, this is after. I'm thinking I'll have to dig up a before the before picture. I'm sure there's one somewhere. In the meantime, let's look at this detail and pretend massive work was done. :D


This picture stinks, but I'd already put the pickup back in before uploading.



This is why the pickup won't fit on the other side. There's less than five inch clearance between the tailgait and the garage door. Hub's Jeep is much smaller.


In case anyone was worried I'd only knit tonight, there's things to sort.


The papers on the floor are all home improvement-related and samples are included. The wonderful thing is, everywhere else in the kitchen is spotless. :)

There'll be update pictures on the current knit-a-longs, I promise.

Cleaning up the Garage

Ooooh, you know from THAT title, it's going to be a fascinating post, don'tcha?

Chelle covers Saturday's knit group so well, let's all look over there for a moment, then come back. Gran and Fry have an additional contest to find Flakey. He's there, but not with any pictures I'm in. Which, while we're on THAT subject, has caused me to start over on the South Beach. How I look in photos is not how I look in my own mind. I've never been photogenic, but still. Ick.

So this is day one of the diet, and while I didn't work out, the garage has been cleaned out completely. This is before, because we moved the vehicles before I remembered the after photo. Move stuff, sweep, wash, let dry, and sweep again. Hubby came home just in time to move the paint cans to the basement. In a couple of weeks, Monday will be bulky item pickup, and our goal is to make them earn their money.

After all that, now I remember why I used to work out. I'd better spend the rest of the evening working on my lacy sock class homework, playing Sims, drinking cold Diet Pepsis, and ignoring all the carbs in the house.

A Snowman Named Flakey

He's a complicated snowman, underneath the smiling exterior. Flakey doesn't see his father, Snowy, much. Nor does he chat much with his brothers, Frosty and another whose name he doesn't even know. There's a few nieces and nephews running around, but again, Flakey just, well, flakes out concerning relatives. He does have a son, but for security purposes, we can't post his picture.

Those who know him will notice his hat doesn't match his scarf. Ah, yes. Our beloved Flakey is a model.

In the below pictures, we can see him in his less mysterious, artistic pose. The one he normally assumes in the living room. He's a year-round snowman, reminding everyone that at most Christmas is only a year away.


Here, our beloved Flakey poses with the dyed roving from Cottage Fibers (the local shop). In a minute, I'll get to stupid things I've typed and need to recant. For now, let's just enjoy the fact that the hat fits someone, even if not a newborn. (maybe, because it's been nearly 11 years since Fry was that small)


Stupid thing 1: In my reviews of Knit Pick's yarns, I mentioned their cotton/wool blend, wondering why? I thought the mixing was goofy until...

Duh. The bit of wool gives cotton a stretchy, snappy feel. Cotton does stretch, but won't snap back unless you coat it in rubber.

Stupid thing 2: In another blog, I commented about some shorts that had been featured on "You Knit What?". My comment was, "I couldn't substitute the short's yarn for Microspun, they would feel way too good."

I bought the magazine for the pattern, and lo, the pattern used Microspun.


Stupid thing 3: When making a baby hat from the top of your head, it's ok to undo and redo with bigger needles, thus making the yarn amount 'stretch'.

Duh, again.


Stupid thing 4: Looking for stronger light bulbs to put in the kitchen. It's way too dark for me to see the stitches on the two socks I'm currently doing. Totally frustrating trying to knit or purl two together and not being able to see them no matter how close you peer. I'll move directly under the light and it's a little bit better.

Stupid part? I really tested it last night with a wedding invitation. There is a range closeup to me where the print 'fuzzes' out. Otherwise, the print is sharp. The stupid thing is not making the appointment for contact bifocals. (Gag!) Instead, I'm cleaning my contacts to death and making bad lightbulb excuses. I'm stopping by the eye center in Walmart while I check out the clearances and shop their grocery section. Usually, I shun Walmart, too crowded and small-business-steamrolling, but with gas prices the way they are, I can do a 3 for one, AND stop by Home Depot across the street. :D The sooner I leave, the sooner I can sit around and clean bathroom lightbulbs. You know, just in case is ISN'T my age, but the dust.

Lots of ambition, but no motivation.

Ah yes. NOW I remember why there's boxes of stuff in the basement. Every once in a while I get sick of sorting, cleaning, and decluttering. Put it in a box and hide it downstairs. I'm sure it's cabin fever, too.

Ok, I tried to make a little hat out of the leftover pink homespun. Not enough left over, so I'm thinking little mittens. Really more of little hand guards. I'll do a 2x ribbing to keep from having a drawstring. I want to avoid anything too tight on the little wrists. Every positive comment on the booties has me preening. "Why, yes," I'll 'modestly' think to myself, "I did spin the yarn for these myself."

Any bit of encouragement on the sock is wonderful. I have a theory on why there are two sizes of this sock, ones knit on 0 us, and 3 us. The designer did the first on 0 for the cute little stitches, then thought to heck with that! and did the 3s.

That may just be what I'd do.

I did at least 8 rounds last night and would post the progress if any were evident. Bleh. My focus is on how good it's going to be to call these babies done.

Wacky Wednesday

First, a confession. Yes, I did eat half a container of low sugar ice cream yesterday. As a throwback to my younger computer days:

If weather = HOT
Then
icecream = GONE
Else
icecream = NOTGONE
EndIf

I'm sorry, but if SOME people want the thermostat set at 80F, they're going to have to live with a chubby wife and empty cartons of the good stuff. While our electric bill this month is a nice $115, the ice cream bill is more like $500.




Hee hee! Just kidding about the $500. I'd sit in a cool tub of water before letting anything take away from the fiber budget.

Mom has 'the' word for our lacy socks, girls: Tedious. Not difficult, ugly, or even boring really, just tedious. Here we see the lace sock, the entrelac, and the beginnings of a baby hat on some homespun yarn.


Yes, the boy is fat, but he IS also fluffy. To the left are the baby booties I made yesterday. What can I say, I was bored.


Claudie is clearly loving them. They're made from some lovely pink roving I bought at my last trip to Cottage Fibers. Because the lacy sock was so slow going, I wanted to make something quick and fun. I know of no baby girls at the moment, so I'll probably sell, give, gift, or award these, plus a little hat to go with them.

Wonderful Wednesday.

First, a confession. Yes, I did eat half a container of low sugar ice cream yesterday. As a throwback to my younger computer days:

If weather = HOT
Then
icecream = GONE
Else
icecream = NOTGONE
EndIf

I'm sorry, but if SOME people want the thermostat set at 80F, they're going to have to live with a chubby wife and empty cartons of the good stuff. While our electric bill this month is a nice $115, the ice cream bill is more like $500.




Hee hee! Just kidding about the $500. I'd sit in a cool tub of water before letting anything take away from the fiber budget.

Mom has 'the' word for our lacy socks, girls: Tedious. Not difficult, ugly, or even boring really, just tedious. Here we see the lace sock, the entrelac, and the beginnings of a baby hat on some homespun yarn.


Yes, the boy is fat, but he IS also fluffy. To the left are the baby booties I made yesterday. What can I say, I was bored.


Claudie is clearly loving them. They're made from some lovely pink roving I bought at my last trip to Cottage Fibers. Because the lacy sock was so slow going, I wanted to make something quick and fun. I know of no baby girls at the moment, so I'll probably sell, give, gift, or award these, plus a little hat to go with them.

Rip-raring to go!

Or not really. I've overslept this morning and have a bit of a headache. Just enough to keep me from cleaning house, but not enough to keep me from knitting.

We've had a little bit of a busy weekend. There are old clothes all over the ground floor here, brought up from the basement. My husband has every single article of clothing he ever wore. All of it is up here, sorted and washing. The charities are going to put crime scene tape on our front door, saying "No more!" Of course he wants to save every single shirt. He did say the pants he tried on from 15 years ago could be donated. I'm thinking he doesn't want to diet to get back into them, ha ha!

Back on track. While the washer and dryer are working out, hubs and I moved all his stuff from the garage to the basement. Yay! We don't have to open the garage door to get to the vehicles anymore. The trash guys have been by already, so there's no trash in the house. I love that.

On to the fun stuff, yarny goodness. No shopping this weekend, and very little knitting. I am on to the round and round part of the lace sock for class, and did one entrelac square on the Trekking sock. I'll get motivated and replace the camera battery, and scan some items and pictures in for the next post.

Chelle, friends that are oblivious to my table manners are fine by me! I was thinking I'd never put my burger down and sometimes wanted to talk with food in my mouth. Eww. Whenever Mary is with us, she'll leave a bite of dessert on her plate while I'm licking the plate clean when I think no one's looking. I am physically unable to leave any cheesecake or tiramisu on a plate to be washed away.

Now if you'll excuse me. My husband wants me to send all my yarn money out to pay bills and such. Yes, it's money he's earned, but he put it in our checking account, making it yarn money.

Logic is goooood. :)

What's a Friday with no Fry?

Sad and lonely. I miss my little Fry, but am thrilled she's having a good time at her Gran and Pop's house. Aunt Toppa is there this weekend, (my younger sister), and that'll add to the spoilage. Is FryGirl missing us? Some, but I think her living a life of ease and fun is keeping her from being anywhere near sad. In fact, she's afraid I'll insist she comes home early. Silly baby.

On to the bit of bragging. I stopped by Cottage Fibers for affirmation on my spinning. My stuff is still uneven, and I wanted to get a bit more practice wool. I'm doing the park and spin, I learned. Good, because I was afraid my method was strange. I took my samples to see if they were anywhere near right, even if they were only single ply. They were amazed I was so good so fast, and something about me being a natural was mentioned. :D Lots of blushing on my part from all the praise, and a little part of me thinks, "Yeah yeah, you're just flattering a customer." At any rate, I do love what I'm spinning, and when I went to sock class... Well, the yarns there I really liked were similar to the ones I'm creating.

I can't make these babies up, though. I've been resisting this yarn for quite some time. Along with Classic Elite's Bravo is the sock from class. A bit of reduction to the end of the gusset and a lot of roundy roundy in pattern to the toe. After having dinner with Chelle and Carol, I realized that I eat alone far too often and my table manners have suffered. While in a thrift store, where I scored a few original Star Trek tapes and a Fawlty Towers VHS, I bought Miss Manners' guide to behavior. My social graces need a lot more gracefulness, I think.

This may be on You Knit What? someday, but when I saw it in my email box... Yes, it will be mine. I have a lot of the Softwist already, but not all. That's ok, because I'd rather have it as a short sleeve blouse. I love the asymmetrical bottom.


Between retrieving my lost drop spindle at Mahoney's, grocery shopping, and reading magazines while chatting up the Husband, I've not knit a stitch today. The tragedy! :)

Mail call!

This morning, I was thinking, "I really need to dig up the extra irises to send to Mom or give away. When the ordered irises from Comanche Acres gets here, I'll do that."

What I didn't count on was it being so roasting hot outside. I've not got used to the heat this year like I'd wanted. Makes working outside very difficult. Plus, the chiggers have fangs. There's not a lot of motivation to go out and dig, that's for sure. But still, aren't these lovely? Mom's Mother's Day present is the pink one. It's a rebloomer and Jim recommended it specifically.

Worth the effort to plant, don't you think? Plus, I got this one free with the order. I think. I'll have to call and see if they're sure. The owners are very nice, I buy my pond pumps from there, so I'm thinking they threw in Oriental Silk for free.

I've learned something this week. No matter how icky you think your spinning is, it always looks better knit up. Other than the colorworks I spun, this is what I spun first, second, third going from left to right then up.


Now to address yesterday's comments. :) I'm anxious to see what Maenwyn and Carol do with their own spinning. I'm sure Maenwyn's won't be as bad as she says and I'm eager to see what Carol does, since she bought her things about the same time I did. It's fun to see what two people in the same store produce.

I'll get to have dinner with Carol and Chelle this evening before sock class. I'd had so much fun with Mary last week, that I'm looking forward to this evening. Both girls are using Cascade's Fixation for their socks and it's a fun yarn to work with. My baby sister's socks were done in that yarn and I liked using it.

Susan, I'm sure I saw some Katia Mississippi 3 print in color 208 lurking in your yarn stash. From the label, it looks more like a similar color in Regia. :) I love grey, by the way, and am going to redo my grey sweater when the weather is cooler. You could post your spinning efforts on your blog, hint hint. :D

Jen! You're alive! Yay! I didn't want to nag or anything, knowing that vacation and moving is keeping you busy, but... You are missed. The bonus side to trying to spin cotton balls is that if a person gets sick of working with the short fibers, they make great, um, cotton balls. Ha! Recycle is good. I may have to start wearing nail polish.

Oh! I didn't mention! My husband, who liked Mary's idea of him wearing cammo, packing heat, and glaring at the neighborhood deliquents, thinks I'm a domestic goddess. He thought that already, sure, but after I fixed the door in the basement, he's even more convinced. The tin foil was almost as useful as I'd hoped. Tin foil to fix a door? you ask. They're double doors, and the deadbolt wouldn't bolt. I had a bicycle chain keeping the doors locked. Yes, retarded, but it worked. Put tin foil on door the bolt goes into and hold. Close other door and use the deadbolt to make an impression in the foil to see where it really is going. With a Phillips screwdriver and some maneuvering, voila'! It locks easily now.

Not only that, but I'd cleaned out the cat box (I'm sure the grass and everything 3 foot below ground is going to die from it.), swept the floor, and 'killed' a couple of clothing boxes. We have other cardboard boxes down there, empty, that I'm bringing up for Fry's room cleanup. Talk about dread. I'd like to get it clean before school starts and I'll need to work every day on it until then. Bleh.

In the "Obviously I Missed Out On Something While In College" department:

"Wear nice pants" - police tell women drinkers
Thu Jul 13, 8:07 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Women going on boozy nights out have been warned by police to "wear nice pants" in case they fall down drunk in the street.

A Suffolk police safety campaign magazine shows pictures of young women slumped on the ground next to messages urging them: "If you've got it, don't flaunt it."

"If you fall over or pass out, remember your skirt or dress may ride up," the magazine says. "You could show off more than you intended -- for all our sakes, please make sure you're wearing nice pants and that you've recently had a wax."

Readers are also told to stick with friends, book a taxi home and watch the amount they drink.

Police said the Safe! magazine's gossipy, tongue-in-cheek style was designed to alert young women to the dangers they could face if they get drunk during a night out.

"We need to raise their awareness of potential problems," said Chief Superintendent David McDonnell. "They become more vulnerable whilst under the influence of alcohol."

I'm sure these girls' parents are so proud.

Good Morning!

I'm really enjoying the spinning, I have to admit. Good thing, too, since a couple of pounds of roving are on their way to me. I wanted some inexpensive wool to goof up with practice. In a couple of months, I can go from sheep to shawl. I've not got the hang of spining the drop spindle, then feeding the wool as it spins. I'll have to spin spin spin, feed the wool to the twist until no more twist, then spin spin spin again. I'd think a wheel would be better. The nice thing about this is that practice really does make perfect. I'm totally amazed. I'm not one to practice anything. There's some beautiful roving I have over there as a reward for when I get a lot better. Until then, I'm having fun spinning my 'Wools from All Sheeps' mixed bag.

Note to Fry: If you thought I was kidding when I said "Here sheepie sheepie," at the Rose farm... You won't be able to take me back, huh? ;) I'll have to bring sissors and a comb. I can see the newspaper reports now, "Woman attacks sheep while growling 'You WILL let me shear you,'."

Whew! Ok, I'm to the heel flap on the class sock, FINALLY. I know why it's so freakin' slow. It's the knit three into the back of the stitch. I keep trying to purl instead. A constant fight. Thanks for the compliments! It is a lovely yarn, shows every misstitch, but keeps me on my toes for sure. :) The best part about these will be finishing them. I actually like my poor little entrelac sock better, neglected though it may be. Carol, whose new blog I need to add, is knitting two socks in this pattern at the same time, but with different needles and yarns for each. She's already where she should be on both socks, per the homework.

Let's see, any action, excitement, or adventure around here? Not really, unless you want to count the rude comments made by former 5th graders while Hubs and I were strolling around the neighborhood. To ignore or not to ignore, that is the question. We voted ignore. I actually feel sorry for them. Rude, stupid little boys usually grow up to be rude, stupid little men.

Today is anti-procrastination day. Yeeechhh. Why? Because I'm doing what I've been putting off for far too long. To help with the pain, I'm setting a timer for 15 minutes and attacking the worst rooms in the house. Fry's room, the finished AND unfinished parts of the basement, and the garage. Even if I spend just 15 minutes per room, there's usually an improvement.

Well, look at that!

Here is my own Simply Lovely Lace Socks from the class I'm taking. The pattern is in Interweave Knit's Spring 2006 issue. It's ok so far. For some odd reason, this one is taking me forever to do.


After spinning some lovely colorful roving, I knit it up! Nice, huh? Both yarns turned out better than I'd thought they would. Yeah, there's some slubbing going on, but considering how much I've not spun in my life... Could be worse. Hopefully, it'll get better.


Then, I had the great idea to use as cheap roving....cotton balls! Yay! Never mind that I have to recomb the little balls (somehow that just sounds wrong), and cotton is more difficult than wool! You can see my efforts to the right. The left, I did afterwards and is superwash wool. More of this and then some plain wool roving is on its way to me already. I mean, I need something ordinary and basic to practice with. If I mess it up, I'm not sad to ruin such pretty wool.

Laundry, dishes, dinner, walking around the neighborhood with Hubby, and my day is summed up quite nicely. We miss the Fry, but she's having so much fun at her grandparents, Hubs and I don't mind her being gone too much. Sigh.

Sucked in to yet another activity.

Ran around on Friday, missed Mary and Chelle at knit group but had fun with everyone else on Saturday, goofing around today.

That sums it up, now on to the good stuff...

I've been 'captured' by spinning. It was the roving. I stopped by a little spinning store after knit group and all the pretty colors and softness called to me.

Using a top heavy drop spindle, I did this:


Ok. I'll pause here to let the spinners catch their breaths after the laughfest.

I was on the phone to Mom, needing to hear my Fry's sweet little voice, and told her of this mess. Went through the whole, "I can't do this! I suck at this. Obviously, I'm crap at this so forget it and good thing I kept the receipt." Then, Mom had this crazy comment along the lines of me just practicing it before expecting to be perfect at it the first time.

Mom was right! Who knew?

The first stuff, I twisted it in on itself to make a two ply. Just to see if I could improve it. Yeah well. Unlike knitting, spinning can't be undone. Unless I'm missing something, which is entirely possible.

At any rate, the second time was better, and I'm looking forward to spinning for the third time.

Tomorrow, I'll change out the batteries on the little digital camera and 'go to town' on the works in progress. Until then, there's some major house cleaning and loafing around to do. Plus, I want to swatch the newly spun yarn, just to see how it works up.

I totally need more roving. Preferably plain, practice stuff, because the merino I have now is much too lovely to goof up with practice. :P

I'll have to play with electricity.

Bare wires from a ceiling. Can't be good.
So there I was, minding my own business, chatting with Mom on the phone, when I saw a cover on the ceiling fan had slipped, showing these wires. Beloved hubby got up there, saw that the bracket had cracked. The fan was hanging by a screw. Which sounds a lot naughtier than it is. The two difficult parts about putting the fan back will be braving the home improvement stores (unhelping helpers and snailish cashiers), and holding up the fan. The wires are colorcoded and match, plus, I can flip a breaker. No action and adventure there, thankfully.

In other news, I'm almost done with Chelle's vest. I'll have it ready for sock class tonight, and also have her model it. It's really pretty so far, and I've had to keep a close watch on the dropping and undropping of the stitches.

I have yet another migraine, but this one was expected and even a couple days late. No problem, since I was expecting it. Hubs ordered all my meds, he has a mission about that, so it gets done. Plus, we'd watched a news report about a breast cancer that isn't like the usual, no lumps, can't be detected by a mammogram, all that. I looked over at him and he was staring at me with an expression I'd seen before. It's the "We'd better get you checked on this because nothing can happen to you," one. We've known each other for 13 years, our first date anniversary being July 8th. It's good AND bad, because neither one can get anything over on the other one. Practical jokes don't work, and sneaking around takes real determination. I still don't know where he hides the flowers he gets me for our special occasions. :)


And now, finish the vest, take a migraine busting nap, then off to chat with Mary and attend the sock class tonight.

USA! USA! USA!

In the grand scheme of things, the United States is a teenager among countries. We think we know everything, we don't have to listen to 'grownups', and we think others in the 'house' should either give us stuff or leave us alone.

Something fun to read, the U.S. Constitution. Our founding fathers spent a lot of time pouring over every word written. They also didn't have the luxury of cut and paste. I'd think that if those guys could spend so much time writing the rules we're supposed to live by, we could take the time to read over them. At least hit the Bill of Rights. I mean, a person should know what they mean when they plead the Fifth and holler about their First Amendment rights being trampled.

Yes, the alternative is more fun, ie: watermelon sherbert and chick lit.


That sherbert is so gone, now. Except for around my tum and hips. There, it'll orbit for freakin' ever. ;)

Isn't this nice? A few dishes in the sink, some paperwork in a basket, and a bit of vacumming on the main level. The bedroom is spotless, dusted and vaccumed to an inch of its life. So's the master bath. Nice, real nice.

My mission, should I choose to accept it, is sew on Hub's new rank. Here it is among all my patriotic scarves. Just the thing to wear in July, don't you think?? ;)

Ex-Soldier Charged in Killing of Iraqi Family
Coverup Is Alleged; Four Others Implicated

To this young man and his cohorts, I paraphrase Courage the Cowardly Dog's owner, Eustace. "Stupid dog! You made US look bad!"

WHAT day is it!?

Good gravy! Monday already?

Around here, Mondays are usually wash bedsheets and vacuum the whole house. That, and cleaning up from a wild weekend. You know, going to Walmart, having dinner at a hometown buffet, grocery shopping. The usual. ;)

Hubs and I had a date night on Friday. We could have seen anything, with Fry at Chez Grands. What did we watch? Ice Age: The Meltdown, of course! Oh my. I made a total fool of myself, laughing until I had tears. Sadly, I can't just chuckle at anything. I have to guffaw. And speaking of that...we have a new tv in the kitchen! Yay! Our old one was ok, but couldn't get the Weather channel. I know, a crime, huh? Which leads into the no Court TV, either. Sometimes they'd be there, and oftentimes, not. Plus, this telly has a DVD player in it, so of course we had to make sure Monty Python's The Holy Grail played.

Look what wandered up to my doorstep! Chelle's Gimme 5 vest. I hate to admit it, but I ripped all of it and am redoing it. Why? There were too many dropped stitches in it. Should I feel smug and say, oh, this is easy, I'll just whip this right up? Heck no! I did the first pattern repeat (4 rows) and already had to go back and fix a stitch that didn't get quite dropped. It IS tough to make sure what you want dropped really is dropped without losing everything. Plus, all the mistakes have been made on the first vest I made and gave to Mom. No need in repeating them, is there? Especially not with such beautiful yarn. Chelle has great taste. ;)



Not only is it Monday, it's July! No more blue this month.


Except to finish this. I really must, you know. Can't just leave it laying around. Although, the little bumps of dropped stitches don't really mesh up. Sigh. I did follow the pattern. I'm very tempted to rip and redo.


Am I ready for July? Sure I am! I pawed through this...


then this...



and settled on this... What will it be? The ribbon will form a checkerboard border, while Prism's Wild Stuff will be the main body of either a shell or cardigan. I've still not decided.


Thanks for the kind comments on my stash. I really do love it. I've found that if I rub two credit cards together, the yarn magically reproduces. Funny, huh?

In the bookshelf to the left, I have the acrylics. Homespun, Light and Lofty, and other chainstore specials. For the bookshelf at the back, which is a couple shelves taller, there's standard acrylic worsted weight with some yummy wools at the very top. Otherwise are books and patterns.


Ah, in the top drawer is discontinued Woolease sportweight. I love this for socks. Quick, machine washable, and if they're ruined, it's ok.



Finally, the coup de gras. The desk is free of yarn, but nothing else is! Some of the bins are for classes only. Ok, three of the bins are. Socks, beginners, and scarves classes each have their own containers.



Yes, I have a lot of yarn. If a person is needing some, and can't find it, ask. I may have it. A yarn lookup will be easier once the inventory is done. Plus, I'm asking the beloved Hubs to whip me up a catalog for things like this:
See? I do actually use this monster stash to make things.

Now, people in the know tell me, is this a real coup or not? I really like it because the top is gold embossed leather. I've thought about tacking down the liftups on it, but it's rather nifty in the 'had it for years' appearance.



Hm. Do you think I've put off cleaning this mess long enough? I'm looking forward to posting the 'after' picture. There's been some straightening up of this since I started typing.

I usually never can stay seated for more than 15 minutes or so. Since starting this, I've done a sinkful of dishes, deadheaded my roses in the back, started watering the rock patio and pond, and ran out to get more pictures of the pond. I'm crazy about it. It's pretty and no one believes I did it myself. I'll have to find a 'before' picture, there's one around here somewhere. :)